Their words
“If you want war, I am ready. I will not end it, though it lasted a hundred years and killed twenty thousand of my men.”
Source: Letter to Victor Ballot, governor of Porto-Novo, 19 April 1892, in Béhanzin : correspondances et discours (Cahiers de la Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, 2006), p. 20
Context Written to the governor of Porto-Novo days after learning that the French chamber had voted for war, the letter set out what the kingdom would fight for and how long it could hold out.
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